Description: This volume is a collection of case studies designed to instruct advanced undergraduates and beginning graduate students in the art and science of modeling applied to biological problems. Students with quantitative science background (some knowledge of differential equations) are introduced to the diversity, excitement, and accessibility of problems in the life sciences, and exposed to the intellectual tools for successful mathematical modeling. Each chapter distills lectures given by a leading researcher during a Special Year in Mathematical Biology at the University of Utah in 1995-96. Authors were asked to provide an in-depth exposition of a crucial problem in their area of expertise. The resulting case studies lead students through the formulation, solution, and interpretation of cutting-edge research, catapulting them directly into the research process. To emphasize the unifying power of mathematical methods in biology, authors, have drawn from three highly active areas of research in the life sciences: ecology, physiology, and cell biology.

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